SPEECHWRITING DIVISION

U.S. Department of Transportation

Office of Public Affairs

Washingt= on, D.C.=

www.dot.gov/affairs/briefing.htm

Speech

REMARKS FOR

THE HONORABLE MARY PETERS

SECRETARY OF TRANSPORTATION

“AVIATION CONGESTIO= N AND THE WAY FORWARD: NO MORE DELA= Y”

AERO CLUB OF WASHINGTON

WASHINGTON, D.C.

JANUARY 22, 2008

NOON<= /st1:time>

Good afternoon. = Thank you, Susan Sheets, for that kind introduction, and I know that you are goin= g to do an absolutely fantastic job leading the Aero Club this year.

I would also like to recognize key members of the Depa= rtment of Transportation’s leadership team who are here this afternoon: General Counsel D.J. Gribbin, and = Acting Federal Aviation Administrator Bobby Sturgell. And it is great to have Bobby̵= 7;s predecessor, Marion Blakey, here, as well as Andy Steinberg, who, until just last Friday, was our Assistant Secretary for Aviation and International Affairs.

We are also losing our Under Secretary of Policy, Jeff= Shane, at end of the month as many of you know.&n= bsp; Jeff has been such an asset to the Department. We will greatly miss him, but I kn= ow he will keep his hands in the aviation industry.

I see many good friends in the audience, and I thank y= ou all for that wonderful welcome. I= t has been quite a year since I stood before this group last January to talk about my priorities for aviation – and, by many measures, a successful one.

We have achieved tremendous progress in opening market= s around the world. I signed a new “Open Skies” agreement with Canada last spring. We arrived at a new aviation agree= ment with China during the = first U.S. meeting of the Strategic Economic Dialogue. And under our landmark agreement w= ith the EU, we are lifting restrictions on trans-Atlantic travel in March.

U.S. airlines and U.S. businesses are capitalizing on the new opportunities that open markets brin= g. And the biggest winners are the mi= llions of people who now enjoy greater freedom and more affordable options to trav= el.

Even as opening international markets fuels greater de= mand for air travel, we have reached new heights in aviation safety. Our air traffic controllers, techni= cians, and inspectors have worked hard to make this the safest five-year period in aviation history.

And let me also extend my personal thanks and congratulations to our airlines. The National Transportation Safety Board just reported that in 2007, for only t= he second time in two decades, the domestic industry did not have a single passenger fatality or major accident.

Still, the recent incident in San Francisco and the near misses in Atlanta<= /st1:City> and Newark remind us that safety challenges remain. Thankfully, no one was hurt. But clearly,= runway incursions are an area that need focus – and fast.

That is why I have asked Acting Administrator Sturgell= to convene meetings with top executives from all the air carriers. Just a week ago today, he held a national teleconference with them to lay out where we need to go. We will= be following up with meetings with top airline officials this week. Then our principal inspectors and = the airline Chief Pilots will visit at their base of operations in February. We want to bring everyone together= and figure out how to fix this. <= /p>

Busy runways, loaded taxiways, and crowded skies are a= ll signs of the building strength of our industry. But that resurgence brings growing= pains, as we are clearly seeing in the New York region and across the system.

Delays and customer complaints reached record levels i= n 2007. The President has made it clear th= at he will not tolerate a repeat of the travel nightmares passengers experienced = last summer, and he is personally co= mmitted to rooting out the congestion and delays that are plaguing air travel today= .

We are attacking the problem from all angles – u= sing the authority we have and working closely with the airlines and other stakehold= ers to bring passengers short-term relief.

Opening “Holiday Fast Lanes” in military airspace was successful in easing backups at Thanksgiving and Christmas = 211; and I want to thank Bobby for successfully negotiating with the Defense Department for that additional flexibility.

We are taking aggressive actions in the New York area, a major source of delay= s. These include prioritizing operati= onal and capacity improvements, temporarily capping the number of hourly flights= at JFK and Newark to bring them more into line with airport capacity, and esta= blishing an executive-level aviation “Czar” for the region to keep everything on track in one of the most complex aviation environments in the world.

We have put out a series of proposed rules that will h= elp passengers know what to expect when they book a flight, allow us to step up oversight of chronically delayed flights, and enhance protections for consu= mers who are bumped, experience delays, or have other complaints against airline= s.

And today, I am naming members to the special Tarmac D= elay Task Force whose assignment is to make sure airlines and airports do a bett= er job coordinating with one another on how to handle lengthy tarmac delays and the unexpected weather events that can strand thousands at airports.

This follows last week’s announcement of propose= d changes to our policy on landing fees designed to empower airports to use pricing to encourage more efficient use of their airfields, reduce congestion, and att= ract additional resources to expand capacity.

I appreciate that not all of you agree with every step= we have taken – you certainly haven’t been shy about letting me know it= .

All of us can agree, however, that we have got to do m= uch more than just treat the symptoms of the problem. We need to address the long-term capacity issues facing our aviation system.

We are spending our time fighting over quick fixes, wh= ile Congress drags its feet on real solutions.= That needs to change.

Congress has had a proposal for nearly one year that w= ould expand the capacity of the system to accommodate the passengers who are traveling today – and those who are coming in the future.

The bill we sent them is a radical departure from the = status quo of broken policies and taxes that have produced the current congestion crisis. It uses market forces= more effectively at airports to address delays.= It modernizes how we pay for airports and will allow us to overhaul = the nation’s air traffic control system.

We have got to upgrade our outdated air traffic control system with satellite-based NextGen= technology if we are going to get ahead of the congestion problem. I can tell you that Admiral Tom Ba= rrett, the Department’s Deputy Secretary, and Acting Administrator Sturgell = are stepping up the pressure on everyone involved with NextGen to start delivering tangible results for the traveling public.

We reached a significant milestone last year with the = FAA’s contract for the satellite-based Automatic Dependent Surveillance Broadcast (ADS-B) system and its proposed rule for equipping aircraft with ADS-B avio= nics.

We are already getting a first glimpse of the powerful= ADS-B technology in action. UPS is using it to guide planes more efficiently at its WorldPort Hub in Louisville, and to= help manage noise, emissions, and fuel consumption.

&nb= sp;

The technology is there. But the support from Congress isn’t. Their inaction o= n our proposal leaves us without the funding reforms we need to transform the sys= tem.

<= /o:p>

Worse, while Congress continues to play politics with our reauthorization, come March 1<= sup>st we may not be able to invest in critical NextGen technologies and demonstration projects as planned for 2008.

NextGen is not the only thing jeopardized by congressional inaction on an aviation bill. As of December 31^st, the Airport Improvement Program has been effectiv= ely shut down.

That means no new grants for airport expansion and run= way safety projects or to help smaller airports improve centerline markings on taxiways to prevent runway incursions.&nbs= p; There is no excuse for= Congress to short-change safety.

And quite honestly, I am a little tired of all the noi= se from Capitol Hill about how bad aviation delays are when they are sitting on the sidelines in Washington while passengers sit waiting in airports and on taxiways across the country= .

The congressional hold-ups are not limited to the avia= tion bill; they extend to key appointments like the confirmation of Bobby Sturgell as = the next FAA Administrator.

Everyone knows Bobby is superbly qualified for the pos= ition, and he is doing a great job in his capacity as Acting Administrator. But he needs the full authority th= at comes with confirmation to properly deal with the safety and capacity issues that are so key to the success of the FAA.

Three months have passed since the President nominated= him, and Congress has not budged.

An impending presidential election is no excuse for suspending business in Washin= gton. Frankly, there isn’t an excu= se good enough for playing politics with aviation safety, aviation capacity, a= nd aviation leadership. That is precisely why Congress made the FAA Administrator a five-year termed appoin= tment – so politics would not be the driver of the process.

How much longer is Congress going to keep critical avi= ation issues in a holding pattern?

How much longer will their inaction force the American people to suffer unreliable schedules, missed connections, and lost opportunities?

How much longer will they ask Americans to pay the eco= nomic cost of congestion and delay – already estimated at $15 billion a yea= r?

We have arrived at the cross-roads moment when it come= s to the congestion that is clogging our airports and overwhelming our airways.<= span style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'> Let’s join together to bring= about real change in our aviation system. It is time to end the delays in Washington, and get travelers back on schedule.

Thank you.

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